RIL to spend Rs 2 L cr on 5G

CHENNAI: Reliance Industries will roll out Jio 5G across key cities by Diwali and make it available in every town of the country by December 2023 by investing Rs 2 lakh crore. It has also committed Rs 75,000 crore for renewable energy business. While chairman of the group Mukesh Ambani announced the succession plan for its retail, telecom and new energy business, he pushed announcements on their IPO plans to next year.

"To build our pan-India true 5G network, we have committed a total investment of Rs 2 lakh crore. Jio has prepared the fastest ever and most ambitious 5G rollout plan for a country of our size. Within the next two months, that is by Diwali, we will launch Jio 5G across multiple key cities including metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata," Ambani said addressing the group's 45th annual general meeting virtually on Monday.

Further, Jio 5G will expand its footprint to reach every town, taluka and tehsil by December 2023, he said.

Ambani claimed that Jio 5G will be the world's largest and most advanced 5G network with zero dependency on the 4G network. The Jio platforms will enter into a partnership with the US-based mobile communications firm Qualcomm to provide a made-in-India 5G network.

Among the new growth engines of the group, the renewable energy business will receive an investment of Rs 75,000 crore. "RIL's captive requirement provides a large base-load demand to accelerate Rs 75,000 crore commitment to establish a New Energy manufacturing ecosystem. Once proven at scale, we are prepared to double the investment to scale up our manufacturing ecosystem," said Ambani.

Reliance Retail, one of its fastest growing segments, will launch its own FMCG business this year. Reliance Retail has entered into a partnership with Meta to enable online shopping of groceries on the Whatsapp platform through JioMart.
The chairman also announced the succession plan of the conglomerate by assigning the fast growing verticals to the next generation.

"Our next-gen leaders are confidently taking over the reins across businesses. Akash and Isha have assumed leadership roles in Jio and Retail respectively. Anant has also joined our New Energy business with great zeal," he said. "All three have fully inherited our founder's (Dhirubhai Ambani) mindset," he said. Mukesh Ambani will "continue to provide hands-on leadership as before".

However, he did not speak about the IPO plans for Jio and Reliance Retail as was expected by the shareholders. "I will up-date you on the IPO in my speech next year," he said.

Meanwhile, the oil-to-chemicals business will continue to be as important as the newer verticals. Reliance will invest 75,000 crore over the next five  years to expand the business.